Playing doctor: Simulation in medical school as affective practice

Kelly Underman

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.05.028

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Playing doctor: Simulation in medical school as affective practice

Journal article

Peer reviewed

Playing doctor: Simulation in medical school as affective practice

Kelly Underman

Social science & medicine (1982), v 136-137

Jul 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.05.028

PMID: 26022187

Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel

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Abstract

Affect

Medical habitus

Pelvic exam

Professional socialization

Simulation

Simulated patient encounters, in which a trained layperson role-plays a patient, have become increasingly important in medical education. One such type is the gynecological teaching associate (GTA), who teaches medical students how to perform the pelvic examination using her own body. This paper considers the role that simulation like the GTA session plays in medical students' professional socialization. Drawn from interviews and archival sources gathered from medical students, medical faculty, and GTAs, this paper explores the tensions between artificiality and authenticity in order to understand how, through pedagogical practice, medical students come to embody medical culture through simulation. This paper uses the theoretical framework of the medical habitus to understand the role of emotion in medical student socialization. It argues that simulation is an example of affective practice: any rehearsal of techniques or styles of expressing, experiencing, or managing emotion that reshape the body's capacity to feel. •Simulation assists in the professional socialization of medical students.•Emotional dispositions can be trained into the body through practice.•Simulation involves tension between artificiality in the encounter and the need for authenticity.•Affective practice reshapes the body's capacity to feel and experience emotion.